So I watch the Colbert Report semi-regularly, and I caught the episode where the Ben and Jerry, of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, were on to promote Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dreams flavor ice cream. My boyfriend and I immediately went to our local grocery store at midnight to see if we could find this tasty example of Freedom. For those of you who haven’t heard, the flavor is vanilla ice cream with fudge covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. The packaging seals the deal:

and

What’s more patriotic than that?

So the midnight grocery run unfortunately didn’t yield any Americone Dream. But a quick perusal of Chowhound and this really helpful Americone Dream store sightings website seemed to indicate that Alberston’s grocery chain had the flavor in stock. I went to the nearest Alberston’s last night, and sure enough, there was Stephen Colbert’s face, waiting for me in the frozen food section. And all Ben and Jerry pints were on sale 2/$5! Not too bad. The flavor was nearly sold out — only 3 pints left, and the episode had only aired the previous night. So if you’re looking to buy a pint, check out Albertson’s.

As for the taste: it’s a pretty simple yet tasty flavor. It’s definitely simple for Ben and Jerry standards. These are all common enough flavors for ice cream — vanilla, chocolate and caramel, which seems right for Colbert’s simple, plain, take no prisoners attitude on the show. And it tastes really good. The waffle cone pieces aren’t as hard or crunchy as I expected, though it’s in ice cream, so there’s sure to be some degridation in crunch, but overall, it’s a really tasty flavor. I still love Cherry Garcia the most, but I’d put Americone Dream in my top three of Ben and Jerry flavors. Anyhow, go get some and experience Stephen Colbert from the inside!

For those of you who are Food Network lovers, you have probably noticed the ads for Bobby Flay’s (relatively) new show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  The show’s concept is less about cooking instruction, and more about showcasing chefs (mostly amateur) that specialize in a particular type of food, such as steak, chowder or jerk chicken.  Bobby Flay, after studying the chef’s technique, comes up with his own recipe, and then the two chefs have a throwdown, with the winner picked by impartial judges.

Now, TJFKAK pointed out that this is an extremely arrogant concept for a show - and I have to agree.  While Flay does show respect for his competitors, the fact that he travels around the U.S. challenging all sorts of chefs, suggests that he thinks pretty highly of himself.  It’s like of like Flay thinks he’s the Harlem Globetrotters of cooking, and his challengers and the audience will be happy to see him flex his cooking muscle.

And that would be a decent concept if Flay was in fact, the cooking equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters.  But what I notice about Flay is that while he will attempt to make a wide range of cuisines, he has a limited range of cooking techniques. 

For example, in the shows that I have watched, Flay has made some sort of salsa every time.  And I guess that could be interpreted as Flay brining his southern roots to the competition, but it gets old to the point that I start rolling my eyes as soon as he breaks out the corn.  In the last challenge, his helpers mentioned specifically that his mango salsa didn’t add anything to the dish, but at the throwdown he made it anyway.

He loves his salsa.

I also don’t like the way the throwdown is arranged.  The Food Network sets up the challenger as if they are just being featured as a chef - they have no idea that they will be competing.  Flay on the other hand, obviously knows the he is competing, and has the time to study the chef’s dishes and techniques, and make up his own recipe.

This is interesting, because when Flay shows up, the other chef is always surprised.  But it also seems a bit unfair that Flay blindsides his challengers - I’d imagine that many of the chefs would change their dishes to be better suited for competition if they’d known about the Throwdown.

To Flay’s credit, he does do a good job of patronizing his challenger, showing respect for their technique while keeping his criticisms to a minimum.  And many of his competitors throw jabs Flay’s way - and he takes these with a smile.

Interestingly, in the three shows I’ve watched, Flay has lost two times.  He’s gracious enough in defeat, but up until judgement the trademark Flay cockiness abounds.

The show itself is not bad - but if you don’t like bobby flay, you’re going to be irritated throughout.  On the other hand, it is interesting to see these different cooking techniques - I only wish Flay had a few more tricks up his sleeve than southern spices and salsa. 

Additional notes:

You can find more info about each episode here.  The recipes actually don’t look bad - but see what I mean about the salsa?  Every episode has a salsa or ‘relish.’

The Jerk chicken looked pretty good on the show - let me know if you try this out!

For those (un)fortunate to know me personally, know about my love for hip hop.  One of my favorite up and coming artists right now is Lupe Fiasco out of Chicago.  He’s had a great first album Food and Liquor.  I’d describe it similar in style to older Kanye West.   I noticed a song off the album titled Daydreamin’ in a new Macy’s commercial.  I hope this brings his big break.

Yes, I’ve been sucked into the lotto too.  Here were the winning numbers from 3/6/2007:  16, 22, 29, 39, 42 Mega-20

Hope you won

Here’s the secret to winning the lottery, you have to buy the ticket!  Thats it!  Sorry the numbers are all random!

Consumerist is reporting on an interesting incident at Jamba Juice.  As you probably know, Jamba Juice asks you for your name when you take an order.  But in this case, the lady didn’t give a name, so, the cashier wrote her name as ‘DYKE.’

Here is a news report from CBS 13.  Before watching, guess how dykey, on a scale of 1 to 10 the victim will be, and see how she meets your expectations.

One of the more ammusing parts of this video, as consumerist points out, is the Jamba Juice worker getting a call not to talk to the reporter, as he is talking to the reporter.  I guess Jamba didn’t want that 15 year old store manager to be handling their delicate bigotry issues.

What I wonder is how the Jamba Juice employee actually knew that the victim was a dyke.  Or gay or whatever the more PC term is.  Was it just a good guess, or maybe the victim was engaged in some dykey activities while waiting in line?  Who knows.